You may have touched on something there Elizabeth. I've known girls in college that only went there because their friends were enrolled in classes at the school and not because of the curriculum that was offered.

I don't know if anyone has figured this out yet, Liz. In the 1960s, college accounting classes were loaded with men. By the 1980s, the numbers had evened out. But for whatever reason, it hasn't worked that way in engineering.

That's an interesting perspective, too, Chuck, and you could be right. This also I guess has to do with socialization...maybe the gals don't want to continue because their friends don't and then even if they show promise, they go into another field. So I guess what this all means is there still need to be programs and encouragement for women to enter these fields, and not just from family members.

I could be wrong here, but I have a feeling the lack of girls in engineering is self-perpetuating. A lot of girls don't go into engineering because they don't have friends who are going into engineering. And maybe they don't have female engineers to serve as role models. There seem to be plenty of girls who do well in high-level high school physics and math classes, but there seems to be a disconnect at the college level -- or at least that's what I saw when I was an undergrad. There weren't a lot of women in my college engineering classes. I have a feeling that many of the young women who have succeeded in engineering saw it at home (that's a huge help), or had a family member to help lead them in the right direction.

Thanks for telling us about this, Cabe. The lesser presence of women in STEM classes and careers can be ascribed to many reasons, but one of the most important is definitely social, on both sides of the equation. And that's old news. Girls are not encouraged to be smart, and especially not to be mathematically smart, which tends to be a requirement for most sciences and most technology. Girls who are smart in math aren't as popular in high school, because of socialization, as Liz mentions. I speak from both my own experience in the 60s, as well as the experience of my niece (who graduated from Caltech). The problem is well known there, and at some other institutions of higher learning. BTW, the stereotype that boys are better at math than girls is simply that: a stereotype, which has been overturned by recent studies: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-01/apa-wsf010510.php

It isn't that baffling. Go to any university college of engineering (my field is EE) and look at the classes. Freshman courses here about 50% female, but by the time you reach teh senior and post grad classes you are lucky to have A girl in your class.

I can not ascribe the reasons, but I can say that we all go through the same instruction and experience. Many of the girls I saw drop out of engineering just didn't seem to 'get it'.

Most of the freshman drops (male and female) appeared to be shell shocked by how hard the material was going to be and didn't want to step up to the task. They just wanted a degree and a career, and didn't care what it was in. Why work hard to get an engineering degree when an intelligent person can skate through something else (e.g. business, humanities, education, etc...)

Those are disheartening numbers, Chuck. I can't understand it either and wonder is women are still socialized from a young age into more artistic or social careers rather than scientific ones. I can't imagine this would be the case these days, but you just don't know. It would be a shame if that were true. And I suppose there is scientific evidence that the brains of men and women work differently, but there are plenty of incredibly successful scientists and engineers so I don't think this could possibly be any deterrent to women in this field. Perhaps traditional gender roles are still to blame, especially in the U.S. It would be an interesting topic for more study!

I am still baffled as to why more women don't choose engineering as a career. When I started on Design News in 1987, one of our editors (Gail Robinson) wrote a great 10-page magazine article about overcoming the barriers that cause women to make up only 10% of the engineering profession. Now, here we are 26 years later, and the percentage is up to what -- 12%? Why?

A few weeks ago, Ford Motor Co. quietly announced that it was rolling out a new wrinkle to the powerful safety feature called stability control, adding even more lifesaving potential to a technology that has already been very successful.

It won't be too much longer and hardware design, as we used to know it, will be remembered alongside the slide rule and the Karnaugh map. You will need to move beyond those familiar bits and bytes into the new world of software centric design.

People who want to take advantage of solar energy in their homes no longer need to install a bolt-on solar-panel system atop their houses -- they can integrate solar-energy-harvesting shingles directing into an existing or new roof instead.

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